Jan 22 2016

Photo Blog: Art Stage Singapore 2016

by Denise Tsui

Entering Art Stage Singapore 2016 through Thai artist Ploenchan Vinyaratn’s Netscape (2015)—a passageway of black feathers, colorful appliqué and embroidery resembling giant nestling wings—over 7,000 VIPs attended the vernissage evening of the fair on January 19, where they were greeted with flowing champagne and art. Branded as Southeast Asia’s flagship art fair, Art Stage Singapore prides itself for its commitment to showcasing modern and contemporary art from the region and Asia at large. Open to the public until January 24, the fair, now in its sixth edition, once again is held inside the 17,000-square-meter Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre, gathering 173 galleries from 34 countries.

Maintaining its regional focus, around 75 percent of exhibitors this year have locations or outposts in Asia—of these, 37 are Singapore-based galleries. In addition, Art Stage Singapore is welcoming 71 new participating galleries to its roster this year including: Aspan Gallery (Kazakhstan), X-ist (Turkey), Gallery Ward (United Arab Emirates), The Columns Gallery (South Korea), Taka Ishii Gallery (Japan), Giorgio Persano (Italy) and Martin Browne Contemporary (Australia), among others.

Solidifying the fair’s reputation, veteran galleries returning this year include: Pearl Lam Galleries (Hong Kong/Singapore), Nadi Gallery (Indonesia), Arndt (Singapore/Berlin), STPI (Singapore), ShanghArt (China/Singapore), Tomio Koyama Gallery (Japan), Sullivan+Strumpf (Australia) and White Cube (United Kingdom), among others.

Changing up its Southeast Asia Platform yet again, Art Stage Singapore is presenting an exhibition and series of talks under the title of Southeast Asia Forum. Using urbanism as its point of departure, the Forum is conceptualized around the premise that “contemporary art is a reflection of our time, and artists are instrumental to how we sense, measure and interpret perceived reality.” Encompassing most countries in the region, the exhibition showcases 19 artists from Cambodia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Indonesia and Malaysia. Also unique to the fair’s 2016 edition is the presentation of the special exhibition “Dada on Tour,” which celebrates the 100th anniversary of Dadaism.

Spread throughout the public areas of the fairground are sculptures by artists including Thailand’s Anon Pairot, who is presenting his “Sweet Word” series (2014) of four canvases, where the words “happy,” “love,” “life” and “faith” are each written out with plastic cockroaches on individual panels. Something more palatable is Italian sculptor Stefano Bombardieri’s mammoth-sized bronze rhinoceros, Il Peso del tempo sospeso – Rhino (2002), displayed in the foyer entrance to the Convention Centre.

Below are some other highlights from Art Stage Singapore 2016.

TINTIN WULIA, Make Your Own Passport, 2014, in this workshop-performance, participants are guided through a bookbinding process to produce their own passport from a template, which participants can take away with them. Exhibited as part of the Southeast Asia Forum.

NORBERTO ROLDAN, 100 Altars, 2015, assemblage with architectural debris from demolished old houses, old photos and tube lighting (12 altars). Exhibited as
part of the Southeast Asia Forum.

A detail from TIFFANY CHUNG’s installation “an archaeology project for future remembrance” (2010–13). The project is her research into the history of
Thu Thiem, a district in the Ho Chi Minh City metropolitan area. Exhibited as part of the Southeast Asia Forum.

One part of ROBERT ZHAO RENHUI’s series “Singapore,
very old tree” (2015), an installation of five LED light boxes
and dye-transfer prints. This one shows a mangosteen tree
that was saved as a sapling from the Old Kallang Airport
area when it was cleared for redevelopment 20 years ago.
Exhibited as part of the Southeast Asia Forum.

QIN CHONG, Evolving Ink, 2008, iron pots, ink, water
and black goldfish, variable dimensions. Exhibited as
part of Public Artwork.

At Mizuma Gallery, HERI DONO’s humorous mechanical sculpture, Shock Therapy for Political Leader (2004), makes a not-so-subtle social commentary on Indonesian politics.

Hiding in a corner at the booth of Sydney’s Martin
Browne Contemporary was LINDE IVIMEY’s eerie sculpture
Owl & Bunny (1999–2015), made from chicken and
turkey bones, semi-precious stones and other materials.

YUDI SULISTYO’s paperboard motorbikes, Dream Come True II (2015) drew crowds during the vernissage at Jakarta’s Art:1 New Museum.

Tokyo’s Snow Contemporary created a temporary teahouse for sculptor KIM RIYOO, pictured here performing a traditional Japanese tea ceremony using his own ceramic tea ware creations.

SU TZU-HAN, Division of Work, 2014, mixed media, 19 × 10 × 7 cm.

At Tel Aviv’s Gordon Gallery, Israel-based artist SASHA SERBER’s bronze and aluminum Astronomer (2015) quietly peeked into our horoscopes.

Filipino artist REYBERT RAMOS’s portraits of iconic Hollywood characters displayed in conjunction with paintings of their respective weapons of choice, at the booth of Manila’s Galerie Stephanie.

Bandung artist MUJAHIDIN NURRAHMAN’s paper-cut and mixed-media installation The Convention (2015), which urged visitors to reflect on the relationship of war and religion plaguing our society today.

Kazakhstan’s Aspan Gallery displayed Bishkek artists GULNARA KASMALIEVA and MURATBEK DJUMALIEV’s collective video installation Trans-Siberian Amazons (2005), which told of women forced to sell shoes smuggled from China to survive.

JANE LEE, Playing II (2014), offset lithography, at the booth of Singapore Tyler Print Institute.

Bandung-born, Yogyakarta-based artist MULYANA ’s
colorfully crocheted coral and knitted octopuses stood
out at Art Porters (Singapore).

Vietnamese-French artist TRUC-ANH’s various new ink on paper works in a presentation titled “Ink Kingdom” at the booth of Galerie Quynh (Ho Chi Minh City).

Filipino artist MAX BALATBAT’s vision of a “Third
World Carnival” is encapsulated in Sampaghija (2015)
at the booth of Singapore’s Yavuz Gallery.

Reminding us to keep our mouths shut when appropriate, Filipino artist NILO ILARDE’s If Your Work Speaks For Itself, Don’t Interrupt (2016) made bold statements as part of Art Stage Singapore’s Public Artworks program.

Denise Tsui is assistant editor at ArtAsiaPacific.